Lily spent most of Sunday arranging the last of her things from the boxes, and hanging the light brown curtains she had bought for her living room and bedroom. She’d run out to buy them partly because she was tired of being awakened from the beautiful dream by sunlight.

Which worried her a little. That she so much wanted to be a part of a world that wasn’t real. It was just a lucid dream. A really really nice one, probably brought on by her stressful lifestyle. Work work work.

She knew this. On some level she knew this. But if her mind wanted to create a beautiful mini vacation every night, who was she to argue, right? This was her logic anyway. Her mind was compensating for her life. She wasn’t crazy. Probably.

Okay, she was a little freaked out by the dreams. And partly hoped last night’s installment was the end of it. But mostly hoped she could get back into the dream world and dance and run with the man some more. Which is why she’d decided to go to bed early. It was so easy to rationalize that. She was burned out from work, right? She obviously needed more sleep. Maybe the dreams would become more mellow, more muted, more like real dreams, and less like an alternate world.

So she brushed her teeth, put on her comfy pajamas and closed her heavy brown curtains, and went to bed. At eight o’clock. ‘Like a five-year-old,’ she chided herself. She also begrudgingly set her alarm for 6 a.m., hoping it wouldn’t interrupt anything good. She did have to work tomorrow after all. It was the first time in forever she wished she didn’t. She usually lived for work. It used to be because she loved it, but lately it had just been because she couldn’t think of anything better to do. Until now.

She drifted easily off to sleep. Something about this new house or the nature around it made it easier to fall asleep. Maybe it was more peaceful here. No street sounds outside. She had her own space again, and lots of it. It was nice.

She woke into the dream. Same dress, same daylight. She was standing in the woods with her hand on a tree. Lazily, just relaxing there. Waiting. The man was nowhere to be seen. She started walking along what appeared to be a trail through the woods. It started off narrow and barely distinguishable, but soon became wider and more obvious. Leaves and pine cones had been moved out of the way and it began to look like the dirt was beaten down, by many travelers, though none were here now.

She followed the path, wondering where it would lead. It got wider and wider ’til it was the width of a small road. And it took her out of the trees through a meadow. Then around a small hill to a tiny village with more trees behind it.

The village was lively. Most of the people were dressed in clothes from past times, not all the same time period, though. Some were dressed like her. Some like the man, some wore kimonos, some wore robes from Biblical times. It was strange, but not at all unpleasant. She realized people were wearing what they wanted to be wearing. Had they all dreamed themselves here too? Or were they part of the dream?

A sort of festival was going on in the main street through town. Contests with throwing and other tests, with prizes. She laughed. Everyone was so at ease. She trailed her hand along a wooden fence as she walked.

“Ow!” she said. She looked at her finger. She’d given herself a sliver.

“Whoops,“ a little old lady next to her said. The woman was at least a foot shorter than Lily and dressed in a lacy white dress from the 1800s, with a lace scarf over her head, and a cane. Lily smiled at the old woman and the woman smiled back.

“You have a cane,” Lily said, completely not self-conscious here. “I wouldn’t think you’d need one here.”

The woman smiled up at her and said, “I can’t remember how to walk without it,” and gently pinched Lily on the arm.

Lily laughed. The woman kept walking down the street.

Lily turned then to watch the festival. People were bartering cheerfully, playing games, singing songs. And then she saw him. The red-haired man. Watching her from the other side of the street. Quiet and still in the cheerful noise of the festival. She smiled. He smiled back.

She started to walk down the street again, glancing over at him. He started to walk too, in the same direction. He almost walked into a pole, but another man put a hand on his shoulder before he did. He nodded at the man, and looked sheepish.

She laughed at him from across the street. She thought she saw him blush as he smiled at her. Then she started to walk across the street to him and he started in her direction too.

Then some sort of loud man, like a carnival barker, stepped between them when they were just five feet apart or so. “Win a prize for the lady?” the man said to him.

“Uh, sure,” the red-haired man said in his low quiet voice. She smiled at him shyly.

The barker slapped a ball the size of a cantaloupe into the red-haired man’s hands. He turned him toward three hanging rings about six feet apart from each other, in a row, and said, “Throw the ball through all three rings with one throw, and win the lady a necklace.”

The red-haired man smiled shyly down at her, and the barker pulled her back, so he could throw.

He took the ball, put his arm back, closed one eye, and threw the ball. It actually made it through two of the rings. She was very impressed. They were only a few inches bigger than the ball.

“One more chance,” the barker said cheerily and handed him another ball.

The man took it, and pulled back his arm again and concentrated. He threw the ball again and this time it whipped through all three rings. There was actually a cheer from the crowd. She hadn’t realized they’d been watching.

“Your necklace, sir!” the barker said as he handed the man the dainty necklace. He nodded at the barker and took the necklace. He smiled down at her as he put the chain over her head, then lifted her hair to put it under it in back. She smiled. It sent a shiver down her spine. His hands were warm. Rough, as if windblown or calloused, but gentle in their touch. She glanced down at the necklace. It was a gold chain with an emerald the size of a pea set in gold at the end of the chain. Beautiful. She looked up into the man’s eyes. They were blue after all. She was mesmerized by them as he smiled at her.

“What’s your name?” he said.

“Lily,” she answered dreamily. “And yours?”

He took one of her hands in his and lifted it between them, intertwining their fingers.

“Caleb,” he said. Then he kissed her hand. And she woke up.

Her alarm was blaring out a repeated beep, insistent on waking her up.

Oh, not again, she thought. She slapped her alarm clock into silence.

“Caleb,” she said dreamily to herself. “Nice…..”

* * *